


Sleeping Baron

by fringeperson



Category: Neko no Ongaeshi | The Cat Returns
Genre: Don't copy to another site, F/M, I had no idea what I was doing when I wrote this and I know better now, Old Fic, Sleeping Beauty AU, but I'm not going to deny its existance just because it's old and bad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-08
Updated: 2020-11-08
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:22:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,811
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27449311
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fringeperson/pseuds/fringeperson
Summary: Basically, it's the sleeping beauty deal, only with Baron.~Originally posted in '08And it's bad guys.  It's so bad.  But I'm still posting it because you know what?  I wrote this, and I grew from it!
Relationships: Baron Humbert von Gikkingen/Yoshioka Haru
Kudos: 6





	Sleeping Baron

**Author's Note:**

> I warn you again, this is Very Old Writing - and I haven't changed anything.  
> It's BAD.

“No," she said, struck by shock. "No," she repeated, a little louder, desperation creeping into her voice. "No, don't die," she pleaded, kneeling down beside him, wrapping her arms around his limp form and holding his nearly lifeless body close. "Please don't die," she whispered as tears ran down her face.

"Haru," a gentle voice touched her ears, and a likewise gentle hand touched her shoulder. "Haru come inside, please."

The girl Haru turned her tear-streaked face up to the one who had spoken, and through the warm flow recognised her mother.

"He can't be dead," she insisted, turning away from the older woman who, for once, didn't understand. "He promised. He promised to _always_ be there," Haru said, refusing to believe that any promise he had made could be broken.

The gentle, normally comforting hand was removed, and Naoko went back inside. It was going to start raining soon, and it wouldn't help if she caught a cold. Naoko collected a pile of slightly old quilts and blankets, carried them back outside to where Haru was crying in the front yard, and started piling them up around her child.

"Thanks Mum," Haru said, sniffing as she pulled a blanket out from the pile and wrapping it around the figure in her arms.

Naoko sighed at the pointless gesture, but didn't say anything, only going back inside once more, and settling in a chair by the window where she would be able to keep an eye on her only child. She didn't understand exactly what the problem was, but her daughter was huddling over a cat-doll and wouldn't budge from where she had found him in the yard.

"Baron? Baron, please wake up. Please, you have to be alright, you have to," she whispered as the raindrops mingled with her tears and made the world shiny and clean.

"Haru?"

His voice was weak, and his green eyes were still shut, but he was conscious, which was more than he had been when Haru had found him on the front lawn.

"I'm here, Baron, I'm here," she said, huddling over his small form, keeping the rain away from him as she burrowed deeper into the pile of blankets her mother had given her.

"Haru, I'm sorry," he said, shuddering under the influence of a cold only he could feel.

"No! Don't you dare apologise Baron! You're not going to die! You're going to live. I love you Baron, please don't die," she said, crying even more at the prospect of a world in which he was never going to smile at her again.

oOo

How had he gotten to be like this? How had he fallen in love so easily with a human girl-child? How had he let her effect him so?

" _It all comes, I suppose," he decided, as he said good-bye to the last branch, spun around three times, and flew gracefully into a gorse-bush, "it all comes of_ liking _honey so much. Oh, help!"_

He should not have been following her, watching her, listening to her reading a bedtime story to a child she was baby-sitting, and as she read _that_ line, he had felt guilty, and had left.

And yet, and yet… When he returned to the Bureau, and reached up to take a book off his shelf, his hand found the children's classic by A. A. Milne; Winnie-the-Pooh, and he had read it, imagining Haru's voice reading to him as she had read to the child.

Bears liked honey. Dogs liked bones. Cats liked fish. He liked tea, and Miss Haru. He sighed and stared at an illustration of the bear being dragged backwards down the stairs by his boy. Children could be so thoughtless, while still so loving. Miss Haru wasn't a child though, she – technically – a woman, not yet of a legal age when they had first met, but biologically speaking, mature.

Her eyes had certainly known how to grip him by the heartstrings.

He had been daydreaming of her again when his private paradise had been interrupted by a figure breaking down his door.

It was the old Cat King, and he had a sword.

When he also had a sword, and the king had wanted something resembling a fair fight, Baron wasn't worried, but the retired monarch looked crazed, and Baron was unarmed.

"Haru will be mine, and you shall not interfere again!" the hairball had yelled as he charged towards the doll.

He had barely had time to dodge the dangerous blade, and had still been struck in the side, the cut deep and worrying.

Satisfied that he had triumphed, the insane long-hair had swaggered out of the Bureau, sword over his shoulder, and sauntered off to find Miss Haru's house for a second time.

"No, king. I shall interfere," Baron had quietly informed the now empty office, creating with his own magic a portal of passage to Miss Haru's house. It had been used many times by now, and though he was weak, it opened easily from great use. The doll limped through the portal and out onto a branch that was near her window.

She still wasn't home from baby-sitting, and she would not see him where he was. He had to get her attention the instant she arrived home – he had to think of something. He couldn't think – the pain in his side driving out all thought. He fell.

An hour later, she had come home, and found him.

oOo

"Haru, I'm sorry," he said, trying to reach up to her face, to stroke her cheek, but his arm was heavy, and the blanket that was wrapped about him was too comfortable to want to shrug off.

"No! Don't you dare apologise Baron! You're not going to die! You're going to live. I love you Baron, please don't die," she said, and her crying increased.

His eyes fluttered open. He wanted to dry her tears, wanted to hold her, wanted to make her smile, but there was no time now, and he had bad news.

"Haru, the old king is coming back. He still wants you for his own," said the doll, flinching at the pain. It seemed to be spreading throughout his body, a pulsing, throbbing pain.

"Baron, I thought I told you not to interfere this time," said the old royal in question. He was there, standing on his own hind legs, without an entourage, the sword still over his shoulder, and grinning smugly, despite the rain that was making his fur cling to him unattractively. "Miss Haru, will you kindly reconsider my offer of marriage?"

"No."

"I will give you whatever you want in exchange," he offered, trying to butter her up.

Haru stood, shedding the blankets, but still holding Baron close to her in her left arm. She took one step towards the ex-monarch, then another.

"First, I want you to thrust that sword into the ground as deeply as you can," she said, her voice dull.

He obliged, burying the sword halfway into the earth, believing that she was accepting his offer at last.

"Second, I want you to never come within a hundred metres of me, ever again," she said, grabbing him by the scruff of his neck and throwing him down the street. In that throw, she put the strength of all the injustices he had done her, all the fury she had of the times he had ignored her feelings, and all the fresh despair and rage she held at his attempt on the life of Baron. Her dear, precious Baron.

The wet cat landed in a puddle and becoming thoroughly drenched.

Haru took the Baron inside, picking up the blankets and dropping them in the laundry basket in the hall as she went.

"Hold on Baron, there's life in you yet, hold on, please. Don't die," she whispered to him as she grabbed a bandage and some scissors from the first aid kit and went up to her room, still carrying her hero.

He breathed deeply, and closed his eyes again.

oOo

Haru fumbled with the tiny buttons on his jacket, vest and shirt. She wasn't going to even try and undo his tie, just carefully slipping the shirt out from underneath it.

She washed the gash with warm water as gently as she could, and wrapped the bandage – cut into thinner strips – around his injured torso.

It was getting late, and worry had made her exhausted. Wrapping the cat-doll in a blanket that had been hers as a baby, she lay him on her pillow and changed into her pyjamas. Turning off the light, she called goodnight down to her mother and returned to her bed.

"You have to live, Baron," was the last thing she said before she drifted off to sleep, drawing the bundled up doll closer to her. She knew that he had to stay warm, but as well as that, she just wanted him close. It had been such a long time since she had seen him – almost two years, but she had never stopped thinking about him.

That night, Haru dreamed…

_It was warm and comfortable, and everything was safe. She was being held in someone's arms, cuddled like a small child. She looked up to see who was holding her._

_It was Baron, and he was humming a lullaby to her._

_Her point of view changed, and she wrapped an arm around his shoulders and looked down at the tiny child he was holding, the child he was lulling to sleep. The feeling of safety and contentment, of warmth and perfect happiness had not changed._

_Then she was holding the child, but when she looked down, it wasn't a child – it was Baron, and a pair of hands were extended to her, as if asking to hold him. She looked at those hands fearfully, with a cold sense of foreboding. She held Baron closer._

_Mercifully, the hands withdrew._

_Haru looked down again at the bundle she held in her arms. It wasn't Baron any more. Now, there was only the blanket. For a moment, Haru was afraid, but then she saw him, gently cradling a bundle in his arms and smiling at her. She ran to him, but he never came any closer._

She woke up gasping and looked down at where she had laid Baron, afraid that he might be gone.

But he wasn't. If anything, he was sleeping more peacefully than she was. She could see his chest rise and fall with the deep, easy regularity of sleep, and smiled to see him relaxed after all the pain he had been suffering.

Leaning over him to check her bedside clock, she saw that it was still too early to get out of bed, and pulled her doona back up around herself, stroked his forehead, and went back to sleep. She didn't dream again.

Baron was dreaming, but his dream was a memory, long forgotten.

_It was the day he had been born, and the fey gathered to welcome him as one nearly of their number, blessing him with small powers. His lightshow, and the ability to create a portal, as long as he knew exactly where he was going, had been among the gifts they had given him._

" _If a blade ever strikes him, however feebly the blow, if it leaves a mark, he shall die from it," declared a voice above the others. A witch, one who hated, had snuck in among the fey with the intent to cause mischief. It was she who had spoken the curse._

_Quickly the fey did banish her for the trouble she caused, and the three fey who had not yet spoken stepped up._

" _Fear not. As long as you hold merely a stick in your hand, Baron Humbert von Gikkingken, you shall be able to fend off even the mightiest of swords."_

" _Fear not the day you are caught unarmed. It shall not be death that takes you, Baron Humbert von Gikkingken, but merely sleep, deep and long though it may be. You shall sleep until one who loves you, and whom you love, wakes you – a kiss being the token that shall break the witch's spell."_

" _Fear not that your love might be impossible, or that she dies before she is able to save you. Baron Humbert von Gikkingken, the kiss that wakes you will also be the kiss that unites you, making you right with her and she with you, so that you might live happily together."_

The alarm clock sounded, and Haru slapped her hand down on it. Careful not to disturb Baron, she slipped out of bed and put on her uniform. She was just putting up her hair when she remembered that school was finished. Yes, it was Monday, and she had been running on autopilot. She could take her uniform back to the uniform shop and get cash back; they would sell it to someone else and she would never have to see it in her wardrobe again.

Haru just took it off and put on something else – leaving the white school shirt, she changed the blue pleated skirt for a simple lavender one, and a matching long-sleeved bolero replaced the school vest and tie. She also untied her hair.

The young woman returned to her bed to check on Baron, unwrapping the bandages to look at the wound. She was both surprised and glad to see that it was almost healed already. She wrapped it back up and stroked his head gently before gong downstairs to have breakfast.

oOo

"Haru! Hey! Wait up!"

Haru turned, searching for the one who had been calling out to her. Spotting Hiromi, Haru stopped and waved to her friend.

"Hi Hiromi," she said, a smile on her face. "What has you out so early on the first Monday with no school?"

"I could as you the same thing you know," the blonde pointed out, slugging her friend on the shoulder playfully as they started walking down the street together.

" _I'm_ running an errand," Haru explained, tugging at the shoulder strap of her bag to emphasise her point. "While I bet _you_ are out looking for Tsuge, or a sale."

"Guilty, on both counts," Hiromi admitted, holding up her hands in surrender, though her smile grew and she was biting back a giggle. "So what's the errand?"

"I have to buy a bed for a doll – don't ask, I just have to," Haru said, keeping her voice as bland and bored with the alleged chore as she could. "I'll probably end up buying an entire room," she added, lamenting her need to spend.

Hiromi patted her friend consolingly on the back.

"I'll come with you, but I'm off at the first sighting of Tsuge or a decent sale," she offered.

"You mean a decent sale like that one Tsuge's checking out?" Haru said dryly, pointing to the guy Hiromi was crushing on as he considered the window of a sports shop that was advertising fifty percent off in large yellow writing across the window.

Hiromi swallowed. She suddenly felt like a bad friend – having just said she would go with Haru, and then seeing two reasons to leave her in the same place. She turned back to Haru, who was smiling her best, most cynical and knowing smile.

"Yeah," she said slowly. "Sorry Haru, see you tomorrow," she promised, tearing away to the sport shop, slowing down just before Tsuge would see her running in the street.

"Yeah, good luck Hiromi," Haru said quietly, turning from the sport shop to another, smaller shop. One that sold miniature furniture and various odds and ends for doll's houses and so on, in a very full range of sizes.

"Can I help you miss?" asked a balding man from the other side of the counter, his brown apron covered in varnish stains.

"I'm looking for a bed," she said, standing on tiptoes so that she could see the various different sections. Seeing what she was looking for, she headed in that direction.

"All our wares are handmade," he added as she disappeared between the shelves.

"By you?" she asked, taking down one bed to look at it more closely. Peering down into her bag, then back at the bed, she shook her head and put it back, moving onto the slightly larger pieces.

"That's right miss," he answered, coming out from behind the counter to join her in the bed section. "Do you mind me asking what size doll you're looking to accommodate?"

Haru looked down into her bag again, and moved her hands to indicate the length of the slumbering figurine she had carefully wrapped therein.

"To fit one that size, you're looking two shelves over still," he said, ushering her to the appropriate section. "Did you have some idea of the style? I know that four-poster beds are quite popular with little girls, if you're buying for a little sister or cousin."

"Thank you, but this is for me, and a four-poster bed … isn't exactly right, not for this doll. He needs something… uncluttered, simple, but it must also be elegant," Haru said, fishing for the right words, trying to express herself better with her hands, but not knowing exactly what to do with them.

"Ah, a gentleman doll," said the craftsman knowingly. He reached past Haru's nose for a bed on the top shelf, and brought it down to display to her.

"It's perfect," she said quietly, almost a whisper. The almost reverential tone of the one whom has found exactly what they are looking for, and is afraid that it might yet disappear. It was made of a light pine, and lacquered to an almost iridescent golden glow. It was almost the sort of bed you might expect in the boudoir of a king, complete with the luxurious looking deep red coverlet over white sheets.

"It is also a discontinued style. It wasn't popular, so I've stopped making it. It seems a shame really, that so few people like this style of bed," the shop owner said, looking over the scale version of the king-size bed. "I try and sell them for fifty dollars, but as this is the last one, and you seem such a sweet girl, I'll make it thirty-five," he offered.

"Thank you," Haru said, stunned.

She followed him to the counter and carefully fished her purse out of her bag to pay him. She handed over the cash, and he handed over the bed. Carefully avoiding being spotted by Hiromi a second time, Haru went home again.

The brunette put the bed down on her bedside table, but it was so small and there was so much stuff lying all over it that the miniature king-size didn't fit. Looking around, Haru was almost on the point of despair. The young woman sat down heavily on her own bed, the doll's bed on her lap, and reached into her bag for the Baron. Carefully, she removed him and, tidying him up a little, she slipped him into the bed she had purchased for him.

With his top hat now hanging on one of the posts at the foot of the bed, Haru stroked his ears gently and tried to think practically through all the fuzzy, slightly pink thoughts that the Baron set clamouring all over her young mind.

Putting the cat and his cradle aside, she stood up, resolute, and began to tidy her room. It was perhaps the second time in the last five years this had happened. When she was done though, there was room on her desk to make a sort of sanctuary for the sleeping cat.

"Please Baron, be alright," she whispered to him, stroking his ears again. He had been asleep all day, but Haru was resolutely not worrying. She had made up her mind that she _wouldn't_ worry until he had been asleep for three days like this – without so much as a fluttering of his eyelids that might have been waking.

oOo

Okay, it was official – Haru was worried, _really_ worried, about the Baron. His chest rose and fell rhythmically, and his features were as calm as she had ever seen them, but he was still sleeping – four days after he had shown up injured warning her about the clueless moggy.

She'd checked. His wound was healed. There was no reason she could think of for him to still be sleeping.

It felt wrong, leaving him to go and baby-sit, but she had to – it was good references for her resumes, and she really did like reading the kids their bedtime stories.

"I'll be back around eleven," she whispered to him, not wanting her mother to overhear her. She stroked his ears again lovingly before grabbing her "sitting bag", keys, and left for her job.

Tonight it was a little girl, with big blue eyes and soft curls and a quivering lip that made everybody want to give this little angel her own way. Haru had dutifully made sure she ate her vegetables, brushed her teeth, and had played a game with her before tucking her into bed. She was just about to take out Winnie-the-Pooh to read as a bedtime story, when the little girl reached over to her bedside table – which seemed to be there mainly to hold her nightlight – and dragged onto her lap a book of fairy tales.

"One of these ones please?" she asked, hugging the book while making big eyes at Haru.

The woman smiled indulgently, put her own book back into her bag, and accepted the book of fairy tales.

"… And sleeping beauty and her prince lived happily ever after," she finished, half an hour later.

The girl was asleep, and Haru had an idea.

She knew it probably wouldn't work, but she had to try – Haru loved him too much to _not_ try _anything_. First though, she had to wait for the girl's parents to get home, and that meant getting on with… no. She'd finished school; she didn't have any more homework.

Haru checked her bag. She _must_ have packed _something_ to do while the kid slept and she waited for the parents! She'd go bored out of her brain if she hadn't – thank goodness, her diary. It was better than nothing, but she wasn't really very good at keeping an account of her day. The whole "dear diary" thing had never really worked for her. She tried anyway. It would be a challenge and would keep her occupied.

The sound of the front door being used surprised Haru, and when she checked her watch, she saw that it _was_ nearly eleven. She hadn't thought she'd been writing that long.

"Hello? Haru? Is Mitsuyo in bed?" called a female voice from the hall.

"Here I am," she answered, getting up, going back over her pages of writing. She hadn't thought she'd done ten! "And yes, I read her a bedtime story and put her to bed at seven-thirty, as per instructions," the young woman added, bowing politely to her employer.

"Thank you Haru," said the father, reaching into his pocket. "Would we be able to book your services again for next Friday night?"

"Um, I'm afraid not," Haru admitted, biting her lip slightly. "I'm sorry, but my mother an I have already planned to spend the weekend in London, and we'll be leaving Friday morning. I can give you the number of a friend of mine who could probably do it though."

The woman smiled and the man nodded his understanding, removing his wallet from his pocket and counting out Haru's pay.

They said their good-nights and Haru went home again.

oOo

"I'm home," Haru called quietly as she let herself in. Her mother was probably in bed, but if she was awake, then she knew it was her daughter, rather than a burglar letting themselves in.

There was no response for several seconds, and then Haru heard the light snore of her mother resonating from down the hall. She smiled and headed up to her room.

There he was, still sleeping on the bed she had bought for him, his chest rising and falling gently.

Her heart ached as she stared at him in the soft glow of her bedside lamp, and she wished she could snuggle down in that bed with him.

She'd been through this a hundred times since saying goodbye to him before, and a hundred times again since he had reappeared in her life four days ago. She didn't want to be a cat, didn't want to marry a cat, had been through a lot to make sure she stayed both human and single. It was almost a mantra now, but as she watched him sleep, it seemed to crumble into nothing.

Haru thought hard as she changed into her pyjamas. What would happen if he woke up? He'd be all right and able to return to the Bureau, and she would miss him all over again.

She had to try it anyway. Seeing him sleep forever wasn't doing anyone any good. The Baron was no princess, and she certainly wasn't a prince – if anything, this was a complete role-reversal of sleeping beauty, of course, as far as Haru knew, there had been no fairy-godmother's in Baron's past, or fairy-god _father_ 's either, to continue with the role reversal.

She kissed him, just softly, and on his furred cheek father than covering his nose with her mouth. Haru stood waiting for a minute for something to happen, but it didn't. It hadn't worked. Sad, she climbed into her own bed and went to sleep.

oOo

Soft warmth touched his cheek, but it was distant at the same time. He wanted that warmth desperately. He didn't know where he was, but it was cold here, cold and dark, and he couldn't move. No, that wasn't quite right. His limbs wouldn't obey his commands, but he _could_ move – like a stone moved through water, he could feel himself falling, but other times he would rise, or be blown in some direction that he couldn't see.

Sometimes he had dreams, memories floating up to him, or that he had fallen into as he drifted around this cold dark place, and then the memory would fade away, and he would be here again, unable to move again.

" _A love,"_

The words echoed around the darkness…

" _A kiss,"_

Another part of the darkness seemed to answer…

The chill intensified, as if it were trying to claim him, erase even the memory of the fleeting warm touch. At the same time, he was borne up to it, and the darkness changed. It wasn't the deep, eternal void of nothingness any more; it was a close, soft darkness that was just a cover over light beyond.

He felt heavy, tangled up in something, but he could move now, he knew he could. He'd felt his tail twitch, and it hadn't been able to before. His arms were by his sides, resting between something soft and solid, and something that was just soft. He tried pushing himself up. He could. He opened his eyes. The world was still dark, but there was a pale glow – he looked around, searching for the source, and saw the full moon peeking through the window.

He recognised this place, but at the same time, he was sure he had never been here before. He did _not_ recognise the bed he was using. That worried him slightly, as did finding that he wasn't wearing his shirt. The pale moonlight aided his feline night-vision in finding his clothes – they were draped carefully over the foot of the very large bed, his top hat with them.

What had happened?

He could remember reading by the fire, and then… _The cat king!_ He had to warn Haru! He had to – wait, no… He _had_ warned Haru.

He remembered… she was crying over him. Why was she crying? He had been hurt… the old king had struck him with a sword, and he'd been hurt – he could see her terrified face again, begging him not to die.

He ran an un-gloved hand over his side where the sword had cut into him. There was hardly a scar where he had been so deeply wounded. _Blade… mark… die… not die… sleep…_

Some things were starting to fall into place, but they just made everything else even more confusing.

The moon glow was enough for him to get dressed by, so he did – surprised to find that while his jacket, vest, shirt and gloves had been removed, his tie had not. Then the cool glow of the full moon changed, causing him to turn sharply and stare at the source of the glow.

The moon still glowed a pale, frosted blue-white, that hadn't changed, but now there was another glowing form, _in_ the room this time, rather than beyond the window frame.

This glow was golden, but still soft, like a haze of light, and it was coming from a bed by the window. Baron knew where he was now; he was just so used to seeing it from the other side of the window. He was in Haru's room, and it was _her_ glowing.

That couldn't be good.

"Miss Haru!" he almost yelled, jumping down from her desk and running over to her bed. He climbed up the sheets and stared.

She was at peace, and the soft golden haze around her added to her beauty. He wanted to hold her, keep her safe, but he didn't want to wake her either. Then she started shrinking.

"Miss Haru, wake up!" he cried, shaking her shoulder.

"Huh?" she asked sleepily, slowly opening her eyes and turning to look at the one shaking her. The girl was very suddenly very awake. "Baron! You're all right! I'm so glad," Haru said, propping herself up on her elbow to look at him. She had stroked his ears every day, barely going an hour without looking at him apart from sleep and babysitting, but she had missed him terribly. Particularly his wonderful, green eyes.

"Miss Haru," he said, falling to his knees as he now looked down at her lovely face. She couldn't even be as tall as him now. If it was the king behind this, he would make him pay dearly.

"Okay, I know I'm not my best when I've just woken up, but that's no reason to be looking at me _that_ way," Haru said, combing her fingers through her hair to try and make herself more presentable.

Then she noticed.

"Oh," was all she could say for several minutes. At length, she smiled. "I have so much more room now," the brunette laughed.

"Miss Haru, everything in your room is too big for you now," said the Baron, surprised by her reaction.

"No Baron, _not_ everything. The most important thing in my room is just the right size," she said, getting up on her knees and shifting to face the gentleman cat that she had been worrying over for days.

He blushed, then sighed, "And we worked so hard to make sure you _weren't_ this shape," he said, caressing her cheek gently before moving his hand up to tug on Haru's feline ear.

Haru's eyes widened. She raised a hand to her face. It was furred. She was a cat all over again… only… fingers, toes… No. She wasn't a cat again. She rather fancied that what she was now… was Baron's kitten.

The idea was strangely appealing.

It made her feel warm inside, and she was already warm all over from still being in bed and seeing Baron awake.

She could feel his fingers running through her hair, almost absently, and she reached up to touch his furred face – properly this time, not just brushing her fingertips over his ears. Her touch was a gentle caressing, discovering the curve of his jaw, the softness of his fur. The expression on his face changed, softened, became less tense and more relaxed. Haru leaned in closer to him and brought up her other hand to stroke the back of his head.

His fingers were still playing with her hair by one of her ears, but now his other hand had somehow drifted up to cup her cheek, and she leant into it before raising her chin, to look at Baron more fully.

Her eyes, her lovely brown eyes were so soft. Her hair was soft, her touch was soft, her fur was soft, but the softness of her eyes… it was overpowering, drawing him in. How had he never noticed it before? Or had he, and just made himself ignore it? That would be like him – forcing himself to disbelieve because it couldn't be possible, it wouldn't work, or he was imagining it.

This time, he let himself be drawn in. It was too obvious to dismiss, and too powerful to resist. Besides, he didn't want to be away from her.

It was _nothing_ like the chaste kiss she had given him as he lay slumbering, and it was nothing like the kisses she had gotten from Machida. A year after meeting the Baron, she had gone out with him for a month, and that was a year ago now. Well, _those_ kisses had been just plain unpleasant. He'd wanted to get his tongue down her throat, and she had been close-lipped the entire time. _This_ kiss…

This _kiss_! It was like nothing he had ever known before. It was gentle, warm, soft, firm, hungry, satisfying, urgent, patient, all consuming; it brought every sense to its peak. It was uplifting and made him want to lie down with the girl on the other end and run his hands all over her. It was long and lingering, and he never, ever wanted it to end, but he also wanted to pull away and drink in the sight of her.

Eventually, the touch became lighter as they drifted apart. They didn't move far: just resting their foreheads together instead of their chins.

For a while, they just sat there; knees almost touching, hands draped around the other's neck, and their faces so close together that they were almost breathing each other.

"Miss Haru," Baron started, his voice a choked whisper.

Haru stopped him from going on, laying a finger across his lips.

"Shh, it's alright," she said, sighing as she sat up straight again, moving away from his face. She shifted her hand to cup his cheek, running her fingers through the fur there.

"I love you," he said, hypnotised by her soft words and gentle touch. He felt as though, as long as she was with him, he could do anything. "Will you marry me, Haru Yoshioka?"

She smiled. She nodded.

He smiled. He kissed her again.


End file.
